Tell me about your commute.

[Rain Man]

Not just the length. What do you do? Where is your mind? Do you listen to the radio? Do you make a stop along the way? Do you carpool, take kids to school, drop off a spouse? Do you pick up hitchhikers? Or hitchhike? Do you walk? Bus? Drive? Take a ferry? Are you thinking about work or football? Do you curse at other commuters? How's the traffic? What landmarks do you see? Do you eat or drink along the way?

I walk to work 95 percent of the time. Occasionally I'll take a bus or drive if I have something going on at work. It's 1.85 miles each way and I walk slow, so it's about 35 minutes. Occasionally I'll listen to my iPod, and sometimes I use the time to call my parents or my sister.

On the way in, I'm thinking a lot about work and how I'll organize my day, and on the way home I'm usually thinking about random things. I walk a generally different route each day because the streets are a grid, so I randomly walk up streets depending on how I hit the stop lights. It's a relatively busy urban area, so I have to keep an eye out for traffic a lot.

I have three phases of my walk. First, there's a residential neighborhood (8 to 15 blocks, depending on route) that tends to be young and safe. It's mostly old circa-1900 houses that have been converted to apartments or 30-unit brick apartments that went up in the 60s or later. It's the most densely populated neighborhood in Colorado. Second, there's a commercial/park area (4 to 15 blocks, depending on route) where you have some low-rent people wandering around looking suspicious, but who are generally harmless unless their drug deal goes bad. Third, there's the downtown area (maybe a dozen blocks) which is a lot of tourists and office workers and is reasonably upscale. The downtown area is pedestrian only on the main drag and has lots of walkers, though cars cross it at each intersection.

I walk by the state capitol every day, often cutting across the parking lot, and I see the big scrolling LED light of the newspaper building that tells me today's news headlines. There's a really big fountain and some really small fountains that I walk by in the summer, all in the downtown part, and the pedestrian area is lined with trees that get lots of Christmas lights this time of year. I also walk by the tallest building in Colorado, which apparently has 56 floors, and sometimes by the main cathedral of Colorado. The cathedral has two spires, one of which got hit by lightning a few years back and fell onto the busy street, miraculously not killing anyone, but if you look close you can now see where one of the spires is a slightly different color of stone.

In good weather there's a beggar guy who hangs out outside the door to my office building and he rattles his cup of change at me. We think he likes our office building because it gets a lot of traffic from the five story health club at the top. I also have to dodge people selling the "homeless newspaper" on at least two corners that I pass, and the occasional mobile panhandler. My office is in the convention part of downtown with the convention center and several massive hotels, so I also see lots of convention-goers with their little name tag necklace thingies.

In the morning, the restaurants are all closed, but in the evening they're open. In good weather several of them have outside seating so I get to see what they're all ordering. I also walk by the Hard Rock Cafe, which pipes classic rock out onto the pedestrian mall.

I never eat or drink on my commute. Maybe once every couple of months I'll buy a bagel on my way in (cranberry, no cream cheese, not sliced, not toasted, just give it to me out of the basket, please) at a bagel shop a couple of blocks from my house.

That's my commute. Tell me about yours.

[Hammock Parties]

How much gas have you saved and how many calories have you burned over the years, Rain Man?

[Iowanian]

I can make it from my front door to my office chair in 1-2 minutes.


I drive because it would be inconvenient for business reasons to be on foot and I do travel.

[gblowfish]

70 miles round trip.
Takes anywhere from 45 to 60 mins each way.
Some days I spend two hours driving back and forth to work.
Suck
O
Rama.

[durtyrute]

It takes three minutes by car.
/I need to get a bike

[Bambi]

C to the L

[bevischief]

6-7 miles about 3 blocks thru the neighborhood the rest city streets and 4 stoplights. Pass the refinery, underneath the railroad bridge then thru a commercial district past the dump, then turn at industrial gas station. Listening to the local morning show on the classic rock station.

[Bob Dole]

Depends on which office Bob Dole is going to first. Old office, it's 6-7 minutes, unless they park a train across the road. New office, it's 25-30 minutes, unless Bob Dole goes in at 7am, in which case it's more like 12.

Drive primarily consists of dodging and cussing idiot drivers.

[WV]

3.5 miles to work...listen to NFL radio for that 10 minutes. On the way home in the winter I lament the fact that I don't get heat until I'm almost home. Two days a week I work from home and much prefer that commute.

I work evenings, so traffic is pretty much a non issue either way.

[R8RFAN]

Well Rainman ol Pal...

I usually head out about 745pm in my 1994 Mazda B2300 with 198k on the speedometer. Have about 4 different routes to take that vary from 21 miles to 28 miles one way. The long way is the fastest way and is all highway.

On my way to work I can't listen to the radio because it is a base model truck and has nothing on it basically but a heater, a radio has never been installed. When i stop at lights, I usually update the gasbuddy app on my phone. Sometimes I talk to friends on the way.

I took an easier job on my last bid so I only work about 4.5 hours a night but I could work more at anytime if I wanted but I usually pass that work off on the newbies.

I usually get back in that truck about 130 am and take the short route back home because there is no traffic... Come in the house about 2, dog meets me yawning at the door for his treat every night... Switch out of the uniform, put on a pair of gym shorts, kiss the wife and listen to the rest of Phil Hendrie on the radio. Then about 4 am I am off to bed and I usually sleep 6-7 hours.

That's my boring commute and life.

[Lzen]

My drive is a little over 3 miles and about 10-15 minutes. Sometimes I drop off my son at school on the way. I usually listen to sports talk radio or a national news show on the way there.

On the way home, it is a bit longer commute on the days I have to pick up my daughter from grandma and grandpa's house. Some days, however, they drop her off at home before I get off work. Most days I listen to sports talk or Hannity. If there's nothing interesting going on in those 2 worlds, I listen to my Zune.

Traffic is not terrible, but it isn't pleasant either. I find that even leaving the house 5 minutes earlier in the morning means lighter traffic. I do find myself cussing at other drivers occasionally. What can I say? Too many people are crappy drivers.

Oh, and in the spring, summer, and fall I typically don't drop off any kids before work or pick up any on the way home because I like to ride the motorcycle.

[HemiEd]

Originally Posted by mlyonsd

Work is 41 miles one way. 3 miles gravel, 3 miles blacktop, 35 miles interstate. Then about 1/4 mile to the parking lot.

On the way down in the morning I listen to one specific old rock radio station. Mainly because the two DJ's are funny.

Everyday on the way home I crack the window and smoke a Blackstone Cherry cigar and listen to my mp3 that's loaded with a conglomerate of songs I've liked over the years.

Been doing that drive for 15 years. Don't mind it a bit except for bad weather in the winter.

You have made it part of your life. My neighbor lady did that.

She took the train downtown every day for 30+ years.

I tried to hire her here a few years ago, but she had made it part of her life and did not want to give it up. She had a circle of friends on there, plus it was her reading time etc. It gave me the hives just thinking about it, but she loved it.

[Alton deFlat]

About a 30 mile drive, that takes right at 40 minutes. Listen to XM7 (70s music), most of the time. Takes a little longer to get home, because there's more traffic.

[Radar Chief]

I live in a small town, barely 5 miles from one side to the other, so my commute is short.
Only hiccup in the routine is on the days like today when MiniRadar doesn’t have school and I have to drive him to the in-laws farm which is about 7 miles south of town.

[listopencil]

I drive to the next town to work but I never remember any of it. Occasionally I wake up enough to notice a cow or a chicken near the road. Sometimes a human body. I don't know. It's pretty dark. I try not to think about it.

[chefsos]

You know, this thread is pretty damn insensitive to the feelings of those of us who have been laid off. I'm offended!